There are several examples of confusion like this, already occurring in airports with at least two landing runways having center-lines near each other (generally only a few degrees apart). These events have demonstrated that it is possible to land on another runway than the one referred to by air traffic control, while remaining convinced of landing on the authorized runway. At present, there is no automatic system or device capable of notifying the pilot of confusion about engaging the center-line of a runway. Only strict compliance with current aeronautical procedures now allows such confusion to be avoided, although the possibility of the crew or the air traffic control people of the airport concerned making a mistake cannot be ruled out, as demonstrated by three reports from the Bureau Enquête Accidents—BEA—indicating (in France alone), a serious incident in 2000 and two other incidents in 2004.
Document US 2005/0128129 A1 refers to a process of locating an aircraft with respect to a runway, capable of notifying the crew in the event of the aircraft being incorrectly located, but this process will not discriminate between two parallel runways. Document US 2004/0044446 A1 describes a process for calculating the touchdown point of an aircraft on a landing runway depending on its glide slope angle, but which does not allow any discrimination between two parallel runways either.